


Sea Gold

by orphan_account



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 21:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4641471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Dorian met a merman one day, and somehow they came to be playing chess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sea Gold

He ends up waiting in the cove alone for so long that he falls asleep. He doesn’t even realize it – lulled away by the warm sun and the waves lapping at the rocks and his feet – until he wakes suddenly with water dripping down his face.

Dorian sputters, blinking the water from his eyes and pushing away from the stone at his back to see Cullen in the water below him, that damn crooked smile on his lips.

“Rude,” Dorian says, although there’s hardly any real infliction in it.

Cullen makes a series of noises from the back of his throat. He doesn’t seem to realize that whatever he’d intended to say is lost in the clicks and whirs.

Dorian splashes him with his feet. “Try again, amatus. I can’t understand you like that.”

Cullen falls silent and stares blankly at him briefly before ducking back underwater. He swims in a tight circle before surfacing again, rubbing the back of his neck. He looks apologetic, even while he spits water out from his lungs. His voice is somewhat gravely when he speaks again, but this time Dorian can understand him. 

“Sorry, I forgot.”

“Hm. You’re also late, I believe.”

“A kid was stuck in a tide pool,” Cullen explains as he pulls himself half out of the water, holding himself up on his elbows so that the scales at his waist only press lightly against the rocks. He lets his tail drift with the lazy current, the fins along his sides and back fanning out lazily as he relaxes. “They’re fine now. You really fell asleep?”

“Waiting, yes. I was wondering if you’d gotten lost.  _Do_  you get lost?”

Cullen smirks. “Do the currents get lost?”

“I suppose they don’t.” Dorian leans down and Cullen tips his head back so that their lips meet fully. Cullen’s lips are cool and taste like salt, but he kisses Dorian like he can chase the ocean’s chill away.

It’s a good thing the coast’s cliffs and rocks can hide them so well.

“I practiced the game while you were away,” Cullen says when they draw back.

“Really, under all that water? I’m surprised.”

“With rocks and shells, mostly.”

“Ah, of course.” Dorian reaches back with one hand, searching behind him until he finds the board that he nearly dropped on the way here. “But I have real pieces here, shall we?”

Cullen nods with his crooked smile that definitely does not make Dorian want to kiss him senseless. “Of course.”

Dorian slides over, giving Cullen enough room to pull himself further out of the water to sit properly on the ledge. The last couple feet of his tail stay in the water, but he has to rearrange his fins to keep them out of the way. As Dorian arranges the board between them, he watches from the corner of his eye as Cullen tucks and smooths his fins against red and gold scales. The sheer beauty of his scales is almost enough to make Dorian forget which piece goes where – and Cullen, smug bastard, probably knows it, too.

Convinced that he isn’t going to accidentally leave with a bent fin when their game ends, Cullen reaches out with both hands for his own pieces, and Dorian hands them over. Cullen handles them with as much care as he handles any of Dorian’s things – and Dorian himself – so that his sharp fingernails don’t leave marks behind and nothing catches on the webbing between his fingers.

He looks unabashedly proud when he finishes laying out his end of the board. The sight makes Dorian’s stomach do ridiculous things that he wishes would stop, because he can hardly fathom how they’ve come to this point, let alone what he’s supposed to do about it next.

Good things rarely come from the ocean in his experience, and yet here – Cullen smiles at him before he even breaks above the surface and it makes Dorian wish –

“Dorian?”

Cullen is leaning towards him, half way over the board, and peering at him with concern written across his face. Dorian shakes his head.

“Nothing. Merely thinking. Let’s begin, I want to see how well you say you’ve practiced.”

Cullen sits back and Dorian can’t help but be delighted with how his fins flare out again slightly. “I think I could give you a run for your gold.”

“Hah! We’ll see about that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Will there be more? Probably. I'm a sucker for the 'merperson teaches their human date mate how to swim' trope.


End file.
